Friday, 4 January 2008 - Sunday, 6 January 2008
We spent the first weekend of 2008 in beautiful Lake Como, with my brother Brad and his wife Jac, and my father Fred and his wife Wendy.
I arrived in snow-covered Milan early on the Friday morning (Cat had started her secondment at Barclays earlier that week, so she followed after work that night) and after picking up a hire car at the airport made my way to the lovely little town of Moltrasio, on Lake Como.
I checked into our hotel, the Grand Hotel Imperiale (http://www.hotel-lago-como-imperiale.com/en/index.html), which was just fantastic. Our rooms were all in the hotel villa, located right on shore of the lake, and with Moltrasio rising up on the hill behind it. Fred and Wendy arrived around lunchtime and after some lunch at the hotel, we drove into nearby Lugano, in Switzerland, and spent the afternoon there. It was a pretty overcast day, with the occasional shower, so we walked around the shops and had a coffee at a little cafe that overlooked Lake Lugano.
We returned to the hotel that evening, and then went for an excellent dinner at a very traditional Italian restaurant in the neighbouring town of Cernobbio (excellent, despite its not so traditional Italian name of "Tom and Jerry's"!). Fred and I then drove back into Milan to collect Cat from the airport, and despite a few anxious moments on the return trip, when the car's fuel guage was aimed very much at the empty zone, we managed to find a petrol station (complete with a very amusing petrol pump 'attendant') and were back at the hotel just before midnight.
Brad and Jac arrived the next morning and after breakfast at the hotel, we caught a ferry to the town of Como, then another to the town of Bellagio. Unfortunately, it was another overcast day, but even in those conditions, the scenery was still quite spectacular. We spent the afternoon exploring the narrow, winding streets of Bellagio before returning to the hotel in the early evening, again by ferry. We then headed out for dinner at the superb "Il Gatto Nero", high up above Cernobbio, with brilliant views over Lake Como.
We again had breakfast at the hotel on the Sunday morning, and then spent the rest of the morning walking around Moltrasio, the views made all the more amazing by some very welcome sunshine and blue sky. We then went our separate ways - Fred and Wendy towards Switzerland, and Brad and Jac and Cat and I towards Como. Cat and I spent several hours in Como, pottering around the shops and taking a trip up the town's funicular railway. It was then back to Milan and our return flight to London.
A very memorable weekend in a truly beatiful part of the world.
Lugano
The ferry trip to Bellagio
Bellagio
Cat and Jac in Bellagio
Moltrasio
Fred in Moltrasio
Lake Como
The Grand Hotel Imperiale
The view from our room at the Grand Hotel Imperiale
Fred, Brad and I at the Grand Hotel Imperiale
Como
Funicular railway
